The invention relates generally to hand-held immersion blenders, sometimes referred to as hand mixers.
Hand-held immersion blenders are well known, and take the form of a motor housing and an elongate shaft housing extending from the motor housing to a blender working end or mixing end. The blender working end includes a rotatable mixing tool or blade enclosed in part by a blade guard. The shaft housing and blade guard may be made of a hard plastic material, or of stainless steel, and are in some cases of one-piece unitary construction. In many immersion blenders, the blade guard takes the form of a skirt-like shroud which resembles a bell, terminating in a generally circular shroud edge defining an opening for access to the mixing blade. To facilitate mixing, flow slots or apertures are provided in the sides of the skirt-like shroud. In other immersion blenders, the blade guard is reduced basically to a disk above the mixing blade and several downwardly extending legs which together are sufficient to prevent the rotating mixing blade from contacting the walls of a mixing vessel.
During use, the working or mixing end and a portion of the shaft housing are inserted into a mixing vessel, while the blender is held in a user's hand by the motor housing. The mixing vessel may, as examples, be a food mixing bowl, a saucepan on a stove, or a single-serving drinking glass.